Of course this is nothing new to members here, being tempted to re-buy a movie or music already in our collection. I was discussing the 4 versions I have of the great 5 1/2 hour "Pride And Prejudice" and how, on January, they're about to release a 5th, a Blu-ray set presumably even more elaborate than an earlier one. I happened to pass some shelves filled with my prerecorded VHS tapes, many I bought in low fi mono that I replaced with HiFi/Stereo. And I replaced almost all of them again with DVDs, and then replaced a number of those with special editions and some even in SUPERBIT. Then replaced a final time in Blu-ray, or at last I THOUGHT it would be the last time!

A favorite of mine was "Stargate," bought twice on DVD and then Blu-ray, and, in that format it was the movie I used most often to show off my surround sound system, and the low frequencies were so powerful that they blew out a speaker that had been handling lots of low frequencies without any problems. So I bought six Klipsch towers and a Klipsch center, but kept my Polk subwoofer, and they handled all frequencies effortlessly and "Stargate" once again became a showpiece for surround. But then I read an impassioned review in DVD Talk for a later release of the "Stargate" Blu-ray that apparently corrected several defects of the original Blu-ray and I just had to buy it.

There are some cases, like say, Evil Dead, where another company gets the rights every few years and wants to put their own stamp on it. Company B produces new extras because they can't afford Company A's extras... so the fan is forced to keep both. Company C gets the rights and combines the extras from A and B, but the transfer's color is off. The filmmakers supervise a new transfer for Company D, but the D release lacks some of the extras from C. And so on and so on. And don't forget the limited Best Buy steelbook and the limited bonus disc from Target!

Many times, the technology simply improves. Studio X re-releases a movie with a new transfer because enough time has passed. It bothers me more when the studio is sitting on a new transfer and doesn't use it. (WB's last Clockwork Orange release uses the original Blu-Ray transfer, even though they had just done a new one and, to add insult to injury, the film clips featured in the new HD extras are from the new transfer!)

The most common thing today is when a remake comes out, the studio revisits the original. The best thing about the upcoming RoboCop remake is that MGM is finally re-releasing the original on Blu with all the DVD extras and a new transfer.

You ask any PR person and they will say that new editions are rolled out periodically to expose the work in question to new audiences. While that is true, I think that those who make such decisions also know very well that many of us who already own multiple iterations of certain works will gladly dole out the bread yet again, in search of the very best version that can possibly be had.

It's almost pathological on their part--and ours, isn't it?

One might say that it amounts to exploitation, in the sense that "they" are exploiting our appreciation of the art form.

(It is exactly this that made me give up collecting my beloved Criterion DVD's. In their case I do not think they are doing it merely to rake in cash--I think they do upgrades out of a genuine desire to preserve, not cynically profit. But I just couldn't keep up. )

For me, the purchase of a newer version is related to the level of upgrade it has. I have a decent sound system, but nothing that's going to show off small changes in remastering etc...but - for example - Alien had a decent R2 DVD release, which was surpassed by a country mile for the Quadrilogy set (as all those films were), and then received a quite incredible Blu-Ray upgrade for the Anthology set.

Extras can also play a part, but again, if they are significant. Example - my old double disc set of The Fly and The Fly II, which were pretty-much bare bones releases - but got all the love in the world poured into them for (in the case of The Fly) the Cinema Reserve edition, and (for the Fly II) the Ultimate Edition box set - which is the only way to own an R2 release of the "Special Edition" of II, and also included the Cinema Reserve release of the first film, as well as decent prints of the original trilogy.

Regarding some of the above, especially this from ScottDS: "Well, to be fair, no one's forcing us to buy anything."

But don't we all want the best copy available? When Summit released all 5 of the "Twilight" movies in a Blu-ray boxed set a few months ago and I read that it was just the movies and little or nothing more, I resisted the temptation to buy them. But I knew that soon enough there would be another release with all the special features (many of which had been released on separate special editions with their respective films). And it really wasn't that long before the far more elaborate 10-disc set "Twilight Forever" was released. But what about all those fans who had spent maybe $40 for the original set? The studio KNEW they were going to soon release the wonderful and more elaborate set, so why even produce the earlier one? Or, if they HAD to do both, bring 'em both out at the same time and give fans the choice; otherwise you are essentially harvesting your fans, which seems unethical to me. Octoberman wrote "One might say that it amounts to exploitation, in the sense that 'they' are exploiting our appreciation of the art form" and I certainly agree with that!

They don't HAVE to force us to buy several iterations, but record and movie studios know many of us will!

But - at the bottom of all this, is a profit margin - and cynical though it might be to us (and one can hardly argue with that), to those at the top it is good business sense. And it works. More money for them, more investment, etc etc etc...

For me, the purchase of a newer version is related to the level of upgrade it has. I have a decent sound system, but nothing that's going to show off small changes in remastering etc...but - for example - Alien had a decent R2 DVD release, which was surpassed by a country mile for the Quadrilogy set (as all those films were), and then received a quite incredible Blu-Ray upgrade for the Anthology set.

I first had the Alien quadrilogy on VHS, then I sold those and upgraded to DVD, then I once again sold those and got the Blu-ray. I would also agree that in each instance, the upgrade was significant in terms of improved quality and new content.

Like with soundtrack releases, if there is room for improvement and it's not a lost cause I try to anticipate releases and hold out for them. I rarely keep multiple versions of the same album/movie, I simply choose which one I can miss and sell it to upgrade or get something else.

Greg: Re: "... to those at the top it is good business sense." And so the poor consumer gets screwed again and again!

It's a business...that's the way it works...you and I are savvy enough to know when we're being baited with a bare-bones release when the obvious 132-Disc set with all the extras is just around the corner...people learn quickly...but as long as there's demand, it will be put on the shelf...bare bones or not...that's business...and I dare say it probably improves the sales numbers for the Deluxe sets too.

I was discussing the 4 versions I have of the great 5 1/2 hour "Pride And Prejudice" and how, on January, they're about to release a 5th, a Blu-ray set presumably even more elaborate than an earlier one.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't all of these after the first DVD release one have issues that made them less than desirable? Inept 16:9 framing, color timing, etc. ... are they finally getting it right?

GreatGonzo: Re: "Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't all of these after the first DVD release one have issues that made them less than desirable? Inept 16:9 framing, color timing, etc. ... are they finally getting it right?"

Perhaps, which makes us wish they would slow down a little and GET IT RIGHT the first time! Especially as in the case of Blu-rays like "Stargate" that had enough imperfections they had to go back and re-do it -- for those who already have it, they should recall the older one and replace it with the proper one! Luckily auto manufacturers can't get away with what some film and music studios do all the time!

There are very few movies that I feel worthy of rebuying on Blu-Ray. I 've only rebought Lord of the Rings, and the Star Wars series. I think LOTR did it right - the Blu-ray was a straight rerelease of the DVDs with updated HD video/sound, and with the same special features. It made it very easy to get rid of the previous package.

The Star Wars Blu-ray set was a real pain, as far as I'm concerned. Like the previous Star Wars repackages, it does not retain the special features from the previous release. The two discs of movie-specific special features, despite having a treasure trove of deleted scenes, did not include any of the significant amount of previously issued deleted scenes, which meant you'd have to hold onto the DVDs to have them all. That's the main issue with that set, although there were other issues which had nothing to do with upgrading from DVD (the interviews and features, for the most part, had a border around them instead of filling up the whole screen, and were organized by planet rather than in film-order, which is a baffling choice to me). The last two discs, full of documentaries, were fine, IMO, although I wish they had included the Empire of Dreams documentary from the first DVD release so that I could get rid of that clunky box.

Stupid rant to say that movies are rarely worth the rebuy, and if/when they are, I wish they'd actually make the prior releases obsolete.

When it comes to soundtracks and pop music, I'm a sucker for the reissue and repackage. I tend to get rid of the older versions if the new ones don't change the track order and only add sound quality or tack something extra to the end (i.e. Perserverence's "Witches of Eastwick," or the Beatles remasters), but will keep the old version if the reissue changes track order, alters tracks, etc (i.e. LLL's Batman Returns, or Morrissey's recent album remasters which add bonus tracks but reorder or entirely remove other tracks)

GG: Re: "Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't all of these after the first DVD release one have issues that made them less than desirable? Inept 16:9 framing, color timing, etc. ... are they finally getting it right?"

So far, I've seen no info on the new Blu-ray of "Pride And Prejudice," so we'll have to see what they've done to it and/or added to make us want to re-buy it. But tonight I was about to put away the 2 elaborate DVD sets, but since each of them had some extras the others didn't have and, frankly, looked so, well, pretty, I couldn't bring myself to return them to DVD purgatory among my thousands of DVDs, so I put them with the "P&P" Blu-ray. It's funny looking at those covers, because Colin Firth has been so air-brushed that he looks far younger and clean-cut than he ever looked in the mini-series.